Louise Payne

The Black Card Louise Payne

Yvette Summers takes resilience to a whole 'nother level. She comes from generations of women who can make little to nothing stretch into meals for a week to feed their families, put clothes on the bodies of their children, pay the bills and like all the women who came before her, continue to ensure education remains top of the families priorities. She's the proto-feminist, self-proclaimed, independent and strong black single female! She has made resilience an art form. She lives up to every expectation and delivers on every single level. Heartbreak, an abusive relationship and childhood trauma, over it - through it, she has achieved so much! Then tragedy strikes, and the latest victim of police brutality is one of her own, she begins to question what she has been fighting for. As a news anchor she is front and central, playing her part in the patriarchal system that has enslaved her ancestors and now enslaves, punishes and brutalises her sisters. She and her girlfriends, Carlene, Cassandra and Dawn ask themselves what price have they paid for their success, how hollow is their victory? How many scars does Yvette's smile hide? Locked in the bathroom in tears, Yvette begins to recognise the toll of her efforts and that her personal success is emblematic of the wrong kind of success, the wrong kinds of values are being celebrated here. In the face of adversity, one by one, these four women, who are used to conforming in the workplace, sugar-coating their opinions for fear of coming off too aggressive and lowering their standards to submit to needy men find themselves questioning if tethering themselves to the notion meant that so long as they kept either desiring or believing themselves to be a strong black women, there was no amount of stupidity, abuse, overwork, ingratitude, under-appreciation, and bulls**t that they wouldn't take! But now, they have a plan and they are determined to end the cycle of exploitation of 'strong' black women like themselves.